Excuse Us While We Pick Our Jaws Up Off the Floor

Canadian bureaucrat fights charges over leaked climate document

This week's hottest eco-scandal comes from Canada. For real! Where else would Mounties descend on a federal office to arrest an anarchist-leaning, punk-drumming bureaucrat for allegedly leaking a climate document to activists and the press? We swear on our stack of Celine CDs: this happened Wednesday at the Environment Canada office in Ottawa. Jeff Monaghan, 27, who's worked at the agency for four years, was released but still may face charges; yesterday, he described the arrest as a "witch hunt" and an attempt to "bully public servants whom [the agency], in a paranoid fit, believe are partisan and embittered." Monaghan did not admit to leaking the draft, which confirmed Canada's plan to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, but he didn't so much deny it, and spoke about the need for "real action" on climate change. He called the charges against him "an extension of a government-wide communications strategy pinned on secrecy, intimidation, and centralization." And our little Canada-loving hearts broke.